swissmiss is a design blog and studio run by Tina Roth Eisenberg, a 'swiss designer gone NYC'.

Sparked

Sparked.com is an interesting microvolunteering network. It connectes volunteers with over 2,000 nonprofits that need design, branding, and copy writing help. These nonprofits actually use the work — which ends up in newspapers, websites, etc. If I was a student, I’d most definitely appreciate such exposure. Students can develop their portfolio, and yes, of course, it’s not the same as paid work, but it’s for worthy causes.

Sparked.com, is designed specifically to do good and serve the community. They’re funded by the United Nations WYSA and the Knight Foundation. Interesting!

I don’t know, this seems quite reasonable to me. If the work is guaranteed to get used and it’s for non-profit, it’s not so much crowd sourcing as it is a good way to find pro-bono work. I think pro-bono work is a great way for students to build portfolios – portfolios they might need to get paid work in the first place.

I’ve worked as an inhouse designer at a few nonprofits. Each position has ended badly through no fault of my own (layoff, phaseout, etc.) I was laid off from my last position after three years, due to the nonprofit’s decision to stop paying for creative (despite having the $), and to instead focus on the goodwill nature of creatives willing to work pro bono. To make matters worse, I’ve now been unemployed for 2+ years thanks to the recession and have essentially decided to leave the field. So be careful in what you choose to give — and make sure organizations you are supporting actually deserve your time and dedication.